


Act

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Sync [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 16:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: The best act of all was grounded in truth.





	Act

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chiwibel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiwibel/gifts).



> For Isabel~ Happy Birthday, I hope you enjoy this r76 and side order of team talon gift!
> 
> I'm a little off practice because it's been a while since I've wrote for Overwatch or this series, but I gave it my best shot. This is a little different than my other entries but it still takes place in the same verse. 
> 
> It should be noted that this series originally was made quite some time ago so some information might not be canonically correct and some of it is just my own interpretations of things as well. Also vague time is vague because I don't get to hear that from Blizzard. 
> 
> Let me know if I need anymore tags because I can't think any right now.

Gabriel knows immediately who Solider: 76 is the exact moment news break about him.

It isn’t even that Jack can’t be subtle, he can be. There was a reason that he felt comfortable and happy even that Jack had gotten the promotion over him, Jack was far from just a pretty face, but if that was the only thing that he had going for him the moment those golden locks start to fade and those smiles weren’t quite as bright anymore, he would have failed.

Not that Overwatch had survived that much longer after the fact, but still, Gabriel was a lot of thing but he wasn’t petty enough to be mad over Jack about a position he never wanted in the first place.

Of course, naturally everyone was willingly to believe that about him after Zürich. A little too willingly for it have borne out something natural given he had been on good terms with most of Overwatch not even a year before everything went up in flames.

Gabriel realized information manipulation when he saw it. The Venice mission had really been the tipping point where he had realized something wasn’t right.

That feeling had only increased tenfold after what happened Gérard’s death and Amélie’s supposed disappearance. His suspicions had been rewarded after running into Widowmaker years later and seeing a familiar yet foreign face.

Ana’s death thereafter had been left a void, but also gave him purpose.

It reconfirmed his commitment of what he had to do, what had to be done regardless of what it costed and what it looked like.

The best act of all was grounded in truth.

So the disagreement he had with Jack over Ana’s death had been carefully orchestrated so it would leak out this had weakened their relationship, that this was perhaps even their two varying viewpoints finally come to contrast and collide in a way that could be not resolved peacefully.

It wasn’t a lie to say he disagreed with how Jack had handled things, his hands were tied true, and Gabriel was sympathetic to that however he couldn’t prioritize red tape over one of their oldest friends regardless of the intense scrutiny, Overwatch but mostly Blackwatch was under then.

He just… exaggerated like a magician did with hands move to distract your attention elsewhere so you never saw how the trick was being performed and it looked like magic to the untrained or unobservant eye.

Everyone had blind spots and Gabriel had known for a while that he had been Jack’s. The same could be said of his being Jack. Jack had always been a bit too willingly to let him get away with things he probably should have stepped in and drew the line about.

Too trusting, too willingly to put the faith of the world into his hands.

It had been nauseating sometimes Jack’s faith in him in light of the decisions he made. Particularly when here he was manipulating the man he loved mostly to keep him out of the way.

If people thought he and Jack were fighting, if they thought he didn’t care about Jack as much anymore than any use he held as a bargaining chip diminished quickly.

He’d already done a similar thing with Jesse who had long since left Overwatch of his own accord given increasing disagreements he had with Gabriel about how he was doing things.

It was ironic in a way for the child that you saved to try and save you from going down a dark path.

In the end, Jesse had been okay. But Jack hadn’t been spared.

Gabriel had laid in wait a few years, never quite knowing for certain that if Jack had made it out or not given no body had been recovered but given the blast and the flames that wasn’t wholly out of question that there could be nothing to recover.

Jack’s announcement to the world is brief and clipped nothing more than surveillance footage of a visor clad individual with a 76 emblazoned on his back and one huge overcompensating pulse rifle before he darted out of view.  

It spreads like wildfire because it was an Overwatch facility and from then on word gets out about how this wasn’t the first hit against such facilities rather it was the only one where there had been footage of the assailant or when one had come across any personnel.

The press was very careful about mentioning Overwatch any more than necessary thus why it had taken string of events before it had come up at all.

To Gabriel who knew Jack better than Jack knew himself, it was obvious who was hiding behind the mask.

Jack who more or less came out guns blazing after licking whatever wounds the Swiss Base had gifted him years later all with Talon’s eyes on him.

In a way, it was better like this, if it had happened months after the explosion Talon wouldn’t have trusted him to handle it, wouldn’t even told him a damn thing, even if he technically didn’t work for them to begin with, they were his most popular contractors.

But Talon had trusted him, even if they should very much not right now.

Amélie was surfacing from Widowmaker more often now, though not quite back to normal, and probably never capable of doing back to how things were before, she was there.

Blossoming back to life under his careful eye while he made sure no one caught a whiff of it along with Sombra, of all people being his backup.

She was grating, but she was useful. She reminded him a lot of Jesse like that. Very talented, but very questionable in how she had ended up using such talents. Sombra liked to believe she pulled the wool over Talon’s eyes with ease but in truth it was thanks to him that they didn’t notice.

Only later on had Widowmaker joined those ranks of keeping Sombra’s extra circular activities secret, when Amélie became to surface from her deep, forced slumber.

“Ah, your ex lover.” Moira voice said aside from him, much too close for his comfort even if she was nowhere near what most people considered personal space. “Here I thought you were the dramatic one.”

“He always did have such terrible taste in fashion, if only his flaws could have been that insignificant.”

“Feeling sentimental?”

“Of course not. He made his choice, and he gets to live with the consequences. Well, not for much longer he will. After he’s dead that annoying thread tying me back to Overwatch will finally cease to existence and I’ll be free for good this time.”

“From a genetic standpoint, you clearly outclass him.” Moira said, sound pleased. She would given she was the reason he was like this to begin with. “SEP was a good start, I’ll admit, but it didn’t go nearly far enough. Clearly someone wasn’t willingly to do what science demanded at the end of the day. I wonder who the loose thread was there?”

“Can’t say.” It wasn’t as if SEP hadn’t been shady in itself and that instrumental people who played a part of it hadn’t ended up dead or missing. He and Jack had always been free from that because they had become too public to be targets on that front at least.

The enemy always came from within after all.

 

~

 

He tracks down Jack by himself.

He doesn’t need Sombra’s expertise at technology at large to hunt down the man he married nor does he need Widow at his six watching his back in case he’s run straight into a trap.

He ignores the exposed feeling he gets by doing this by himself.

They’ll find out of course, of that he’s certain but not so fast to stop him and Jack from getting in at least one good showdown.

It has been several years, and like Talon had forced Amélie to kill Gerard, they had forced him to kill the man Jack thought he was.

It is more than likely that Jack will try to kill him, will try to kill him even if he finds out his identity. And that’s what needs to happen, Jack’s reaction needs to be genuine, there needs to betrayal and hurt there enough so that the thought of reconciliation doesn’t cross his mind, only to put a bullet in him instead.

Not that one bullet will work. Gabriel knows that from experience.

It takes quite a lot of trauma to put him on the ground, more so to keep him there for any extended amount of time not when he can consume life itself as sustenance, not when he can shift and swirl like a sentient cloud of smoke.

Which comes in particular handy when there’s infiltration to do.

Many of the facilities that Jack had targeted had decent security considering their previous importance so there are safeguards still in place for majority of them, perhaps not as well maintained as before, but still something of a challenge.

Reaper nests in the rafters of the building, some nearby barn owls startle at his presence but eventually calm down when they realize he isn’t a threat.

He used to be able to mimic bird songs quite well, but it was just another thing lost in the blast, he supposed. For now, he waits, there’s no flicker of any life force that could be human so he knows Jack isn’t here.

Yet.

 

~

 

Reaper moves long before the barn owls shriek and skitter around nervously at the screeching sound of a door being ripped off its hinges. It’s almost as if Jack is just announcing his presence or he just doesn’t care if he does run into any hostiles.

Granted Jack had subdued the last batch of security non lethally so perhaps he’s being loud intentionally to flush them out.

Not that there’s anyone here, this had been a base secured by digital means and besides Sombra’s taunts, he does actually have a fairly decent grasp on technology. More than enough so to disable any countermeasures that would make this meeting any less private than Gabriel desired. It may have been aided by Sombra’s expertise, but he is hardly going to tell her that for what it’d do to her ego.

Reaper has faced down death itself and came out the other side, not exactly unscathed or whole, but alive in a matter of the sense, but still coming to face to face with his husband makes him nervous.

Yes, husband since never of the grave claimed them as was thought, he didn’t view it as annulment of their marriage.

Also husband because they’d never quite got around to filing for divorces on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, they’d been separated, but in the eyes of the law which had seemed so important to Jack back then they’d been married.

Shifting from man to smoke, Reaper materialize behind Jack who had been scouting forward carefully thus far not seeing anything amiss but still on guard.

A singular shotgun appeared in his clawed hand as he pressed it into Jack’s back. The jacket though a hideous fashion statement offered some protection but clearly not enough.

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

“You always did have a flair for the dramatics, Gabriel.”

There are many ways Gabriel saw this fight going on, many, many ways and none of them involved Jack knowing from the get-go who he was. He can adapt on the fly, or else he never would have been able to deal with Omnic Crisis.

Reaper goes for cruel, because that’s the persona he’s worked up.

He makes the stunted silence work for him by laughing. “Going senile, old man? Haven’t you heard? Gabriel Reyes is dead.”

He is, and Talon killed him.

Another casualty necessary to hopefully bring about the end of Talon.

“Right.” Jack doesn’t sound convinced, though that visor seems to alter his voice a little or perhaps it’s just what the years that have done to him. “Do you want to fight? Is that really want you want?”

His shotgun lowered by a faction barely perceivable if it hadn’t been pressed on Jack’s back.

“That’s what I thought given you were the one that pushed me away. I’m assuming you wanted to get me out of harm’s way, but clearly that didn’t work.”

Gabriel sighed, and dropped the act. The act that had kept him going for several, several years now all thrown off course because his husband had apparently known his plan all along. The gun dematerialize and Jack circled around to face him.

“We can’t be seen like this.”

“Did you really fall for the pretty face act?” Jack removed his visor, scarred lined his face and his pale white hair had receded anymore and he was still the most beautiful man Gabriel had ever laid eyes on. “Do you think it was coincidence I didn’t show up anywhere for a few years?”

The timing had been suspicious looking back on it, however there were a number of other reasons that could have explained that. Gabriel brought his claws to carefully caress over Jack’s face who didn’t even seem to startle at the brush of sharp metal.

“When?”

“You stress sew.”

Gabriel twitched under his mask. Of all things, that had given him away? “Seriously?”

“There were other signs…” Jack agreed though he looked smug nonetheless. “But that was one of the main ones, it’s hard to think your husband really hates you that much if he’s passive aggressively sending you handmade gifts. My favorite was probably the lacey lingerie that said bitch across the front. Lace when you were so fond of telling anyone who could listen was like relationships.”

“Very delicate and time consuming, but the finished product is very beautiful.”

“Mm.” Jack made a sound of agreement, going to take off his mask, and Gabriel’s other hand stopped him.

“I’m not sure you want to do that. Unlike you, I didn’t get out of the blast as unmarked.”

“Gabriel, I literally do not care what you look like underneath there.”

“You say that…” Gabriel let the unmasking continue preparing for the worst. He couldn’t entirely blame Jack if he had a bad reaction, he did look different, some days he did better at holding up the human visage than others, but most days he was marked as something unnatural with an entire litany of genetic enhancements running through his blood.

He expects a lot of things, what he doesn’t expect is Jack surging forward and claiming his lips in a rather bruising kiss.

For a moment Gabriel is too startled to react.

He hasn’t had that kind of contact with anyone in years, but then the muscle memory kicks in and he kisses back with equal ferocity. His teeth are sharper than they were before but even when the taste of copper hits his mouth from Jack’s blood, not his own, Gabriel knows his own blood tastes of ash is nothing more, Jack doesn’t yield either.

Jack’s hands toss his mask to the ground joining his own he had tossed previously, Gabriel would find offense at that but not when Jack’s hands are reaching underneath his cloak, and his undershirts in an attempts to get contact at bare skin.

Things proceed as they have a thousand times before, and if this is anything to go by a thousand times after.

 

~

 

Gabriel isn’t sure why Jack decided to drape himself in his cloak and nothing else but far be it from him to complain.

“So that’s what happened.” Gabriel finished recapping the events from the blast until now, the glow of their post orgasm state is probably not the best time to have this sort of conversation but there’s going to be a clock on how long and how much time he can spend here before Talon demands a status update.

“So Amélie… she’s okay?”

“She’s getting there. Sombra and I keep an eye on her, Talon has her most in their clutches so if I’m ever asking you for a favor it’s probably to get her out of there.”

“Seems you made your own family.”

Gabriel thinks about that for a moment, it had never actually been said by any of them before that’s what they were but it’s not as if Jack is wrong, either. “Yeah, I guess, I did. So how did you spend your time, Jackie?”

 

~

 

Widowmaker notices the difference in Reaper immediately. There is something stable about him, which is an oddity given his shifting forms, but she isn’t entirely sure of the cause exactly.

She does not ask, she respects his privacy so naturally she goes to Sombra instead.

“Reaper seems different.”

“You think he got laid?” Sombra asked genuinely. “I mean, some people are into smoke monsters. Some people are into everything, after all.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.” If anything, it reminds her of who she was before, who they were all before excluding Sombra whom she never knew before. There was no going back, but any step towards being a little more whole could not be a bad one.

“Well, I’m the world’s best hacker so I’m sure I can figure out. I love playing the what was Gabe doing behind our backs game.” Sombra grins. “I always win in the end.”

“Try to be a little more subtle than your usual escapades.” Amélie says though not unkindly.

“That hurts, spider. It hurts me deep in my core, I shall-“

“Clearly, you have been spending too much time with Gabriel if you are this dramatic.”

“Maybe, we should start a theater troupe. We got a dancer, and a performer, and then I can run all the tech naturally.”

Amélie has to cover her mouth to muffle her laughter, it must look highly undignified coming out of Widowmaker who’s meant to be an unfeeling assassin but it cannot be helped.

Sombra joins in on the laughter, the topic of what’s caused Gabriel to change is temporary forgotten as the both of them are too invested in enjoying the moment.


End file.
